Glen Harrison Fothergill 1908-1932

FOTHERGILL, HARRISON, SCHROEDER, KRUMM, PARSONS, BARKER

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 11/15/2014 at 00:52:48

Crippled Youth Drowns in Farm Cistern
Glen Fothergill Was Graduate of Estherville Junior College
Armstrong, Ia., June 8 – Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at the Methodist church for Glen Fothergill who was drowned Saturday [June 4, 1932] afternoon in a supply cistern on his father’s farm four miles east of Armstrong while watering the chickens. He had been out about 30 minutes when his father came out to go to the field. As Mr. Fothergill passed the cistern he saw Glen’s crutches by the tank and knowing that his son could go nowhere without them, he looked in the tank and found the body. A doctor was called at once but it was too late.

Glen had lived the greater part of his life here and was a graduate of the Armstrong high school and from the Junior college at Estherville. When he was a small child he was afflicted with infantile paralysis and has since been a cripple.

He leaves his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Fothergill and three sisters, Mrs. Blanch Schroeder of East Chain, Grace of Estherville and Hattie and two brothers Melvin and Floyd at home. (Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, June 8, 1932)

Armstrong
Glen Fothergill Drowns in Cistern
(Armstrong Journal)
Glen H. Fothergill, 24, was accidentally drowned Saturday afternoon when he fell into a supply tank containing about four and one-half feet of water at his father’s farm north of Armstrong. Glen had gone to the tank to dip water for some chickens and apparently lost his balance and fell into the tank. He was found by his father and a doctor was called immediately but life could not be restored as it was evident he had been dead approximately half an hour. He had been crippled since childhood and therefore was unable to help himself after falling into the water.

Glen Harrison Fothergill, the son of George Fothergill and his wife, Mrs. Sarah May Harrison Fothergill, was born at Reinbeck, Tama County, Iowa, January 3, 1908. The family moved to farm north of Armstrong in the spring of the same year and this farm has been the family residence ever since that time. After completing the work of the common schools, Glen attended and was graduated from the high school of Armstrong with the class of 1926. He then attended the Junior College at Estherville and was graduated from there in 1928. He was a very good student with a keen mind and was usually found at the head of his classes in scholarship. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church the last day of May 1925, and had continued active in the church since. He was greatly interested in the church and all of its work, this being his greatest interest. When he was two and one-half years old, he suffered a most severe attack of infantile paralysis and through the subsequent years was greatly handicapped by the resulting lameness. Though his span of life was short, 24 years, 5 months and 1 day, no one can measure its real significance as he sought as far as possible to live a life of helpfulness in the home, among the neighbors and in the church.

He leaves of the immediate family to mourn his departure, his parents, three sisters, Mrs. Blanche Schroeder, of Fairmont, Minn.; Grace I. Fothergill, of Estherville, and Harriet still living at home; also two brothers, Floyd E. and Marvin John, both at home; and one niece, Marilyn Ruth Schroeder. Funeral services were held at the home and in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Armstrong Tuesday, June 7, 1932, conducted by the pastor, the Rev. C. B. Mitchell, assisted by the Rev. W.A. WinterStein of Estherville and the body was laid to rest in the Armstrong Grove cemetery.

Relatives from a distance to attend the funeral were Mrs. Ellen Krumm and two daughters, Ethel and Ruth; Floyd Krumm and family, Herman Krumm, all of Volga, S. Dak.; Mr. and Mrs. Krumm of Iona, Minn.; Mrs. S.R. Parsons of Muskegan Heights, Mich., and Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Barker of Reinbeck. (Estherville Enterprise, Estherville, IA, June 15, 1932)